What is the purpose of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into the Covid response? A look through the documents makes for eyebrow-raising and sobering reading.
Professor Antony Blakely, from Melbourne, a specialist in epidemiology and public health, is the man in charge. His accomplices are Hekia Parata and John Whitehead.
The inquiry covers the period from Feb 2020 until October 2022 and it was able to begin considering evidence on 1 February 2023. It must deliver its report by 26 June 2024. Periodic updates of progress are posted on the government website.
The title says it all really: Lessons Learned from Aotearoa New Zealand’s Response to Covid-19 that Should Be Applied in Preparation for a Future Pandemic.
Essentially, we want to learn how to do it all again better, harder, faster and more strictly. There is another pandemic just around the corner and we want to have everything in place to control the population.
The stated aim is to “strengthen New Zealand’s preparedness for future pandemics” and determine what “lessons can be learnt from the elimination, and minimisation and protection strategies”.
Is that really what New Zealanders thought they’d get out of an Inquiry? Is that really what New Zealanders want their money spent on?
We think not on both counts.
The Terms of Reference detail what’s in and what’s out. There is far more OFF the table than on. All the things Kiwis want to know about are off limits.
The following matters are OUTSIDE the scope of the inquiry:
- particular clinical decisions made by clinicians or by public health authorities during the Covid-19 pandemic,
- how and when the strategies and other measures devised in response to Covid-19 were implemented or applied in particular situations or in individual cases,
- the specific epidemiology of the Covid-19 virus and its variants,
- vaccine efficacy,
- the recent reforms to New Zealand’s health system, including the organisational arrangements for public health services,
- the judgments and decisions of courts and tribunals and independent agencies such as the Ombudsman, the Privacy Commissioner, or the Independent Police Conduct Authority relating to the Covid-19 pandemic,
- the operation of the private sector, except where the private sector delivers services integral to a pandemic response,
- particular decisions taken by the Reserve Bank’s independent monetary policy committee during the Covid-19 pandemic,
- any adaptation of court procedures by the judiciary during the Covid-19 pandemic,
- any adaptation of parliamentary processes during the Covid-19 pandemic,
- the conduct of the general election during the Covid-19 pandemic.
It seems extraordinary that a Royal Commission with such a narrow focus, that cannot investigate any of the above, can be approved after all that the citizens of this country have been through.
It’s not even clear if ordinary people will get to be heard: “Royal Commissions are not specifically required to hold public hearings.”
An Inquiry Representing the People of New Zealand
What do New Zealanders actually want to know?
- Why the definitions of many relevant things changed prior to this event – pandemic, virus, case, vaccine, herd immunity?
- What happened to natural immunity?
- Why were existing influenza pandemic plans (that advocated against quarantining healthy contacts, contact tracing, border closures, widespread use of masks and other restrictions which governments suddenly imposed) thrown out?
- Why were New Zealanders locked out of their own country?
- Why was fear weaponised?
- How many New Zealanders have been killed or harmed by the measures forced on the country – lockdowns, social isolation, loss of businesses?
- How many New Zealanders have been killed and harmed by the ‘vaccine’?
- How was it possible to mandate a medical procedure when it did not prevent transmission?
- Why did the courts cease to function in the interest of New Zealand citizens?
- What made doctors abandon their oaths and ethics?
- Why were doctors and scientists censored so heavily?
- Why has the mainstream media been turned into a propaganda arm of government?
- HOW DO WE AVOID THIS EVER HAPPENING AGAIN?
It looks like there will need to be another inquiry. The one the people want. The one where all the questions get answered rather than swept under the rug. The one where the dead and injured are acknowledged and compensated (if such a thing is possible). The one where the silenced and censored get to speak. The one where perpetrators are held to account.
